Absolutely loved this. Rachel Harrison writes horror like nobody else, and Black Sheep had everything you could possibly want from a horror novel—dark humour, a fascinatingly complex hero, a twisty narrative full of rug-pulls and an unforgettable ending. Exceptional.

After devouring Such Sharp Teeth last year, stumbling upon this gem on NetGalley - I got excited.

Reading the synopsis, I thought this sounded right up my street – and I was absolutely right. The blend of magical realism, whimsical characters, and a plot that was in a league of its own.

If you're in the mood for a delightful dose of horror that doesn't weigh too heavily, populated with characters you won't soon forget, then look no further.

I adored it and can’t wait to see what’s next. I’ll be diving into the author's previous works in the meantime.

I have seen a lot of recommendations for Rachel Harrison lately so thought I would give this book a go. For the first 50% I was really invested, there's a twist which I enjoyed but then I must admit the story kind of lost me towards the end.

However I really did enjoy the writing and enjoyed the main characters voice very much so I will continue to read Rachel's other work.

I only had a vague idea of the premise beforehand and I’d made assumptions of what this book was going to be based on them. But it was COMPLETELY different and I LOVED it! It was so fun? And I couldn’t put it down?? And I haven’t finished a book so fast for about a year! A great horror novel about family, trauma and healing with the ridiculously amazing tagline of “the princess diaries meets Dante’s Inferno” like? How was I supposed to not read it all in one go after that?

Don’t trust this book. That’s the lesson from the first. It knows what you’re thinking - and you’re wrong.

Vesper is having the worst day with customers at her crappy restaurant job. It gets even less fun when she receives an invitation to a family wedding, which means returning to the insular community that she managed to escape years before.

This book is cunning. The words pointedly lead us in a certain direction. Was Vesper part of a cult? It seems so, but were they Scientologists, Jehovah’s Witnesses or just extremely devout Catholics?

When the book reveals what’s happening (pretty early on), it hit me like the best jump-scare. Because I genuinely didn’t see it being so gosh-darn brazen!

Rachel Harrison writes with wonderful humour, crafting characters that we relate to and care about, before placing them in bizarre situations set up as utterly normal. To Vesper, her community is normal - it’s all she knew for most of her life. Now she’s seen the wider world she knows how comparatively different it is, but the traditions imposed from birth are stuck. Imagine if you’d never taken Communion and were told what it signified. Would you do it? Imagine the feeling of standing at an ornate altar with a cup of strange liquid placed before your lips… (I’ve been in that situation, and it is beyond bizarre to see everyone else just dealing with it).

What does family mean in such a situation? Friendship and love? How do you react if expectations of you are coloured by an apparently-very present deity, with immediate and bloody consequences?

This book is a satire, sure, but it’s wonderful in how it places regular human dilemmas in a very dark scenario. The community doesn’t seem wrong - until you’re reminded that it is. Vesper’s the black sheep, after all, but what does that mean if the flock isn’t exactly snowy white?

Brilliantly written, captivating and bloodily comic, I finished ‘Black Sheep’ in a single day and have been recommending it ever since.

Oh, and PSA: you may know that Rachel Harrison has already covered witches and werewolves - it’s vampires next.

Dark, twisty … and a cult?! SIGN ME UP! Don’t forget to SAVE this to remember to read later 📚

Vesper left behind the religious community when she was 18, and never looked back. Until, six years later, she receives an invitation to her cousin’s wedding? No one gets to go back after they’ve left. Is this a second chance? A trap? She’s intrigued … could that turn out to be her biggest mistake? 🫣

Full of secrets, equal measures dark, disturbing and fun; this family drama will have you devouring the pages wanting more 👀

Rachel Harrison once again delivers a riveting tale in her signature style! Black Sheep is yet another gem in her collection, a narrative that effortlessly blends dark humor and horror, anchored by a resilient female protagonist.

Harrison's masterful storytelling creates a vivid cinematic experience on the page, immersing readers in a world that feels tangibly real. While moments of warmth offer respite, the pervasive sense of dread lingers, leaving readers breathless with anticipation of what lurks around the corner.

Vesper left the family cult just before her 18th birthday, I mean it wasn't really a cult, they didn't stop her leaving, they were just a bunch of people with crazy strong religious viewpoints. Six struggling years later, just after being fired from her hellish fast food job Vesper finds an invite to the wedding of her cousin/best friend and her ex-boyfriend. Maybe it is time to go home and face the past, maybe it is time to get out a city and the violent freak accidents that happen around her, and maybe it is time to confront mother, the ex-scream queen star of countless B-horror movies.
Or maybe not.
Just like in Such Sharp Teeth, Rachel Harrison has written a humorous horror novel full of snark one liners

Rachel Harrison is quickly becoming a name to keep an eye on. Thanks to her work on Cackle and Such Sharp Teeth it's clear that she is a wonderful new voice in the world of feminist horror, and her third book is no exception to this.

Black Sheep follows Vesper, a woman in her twenties who fled from her deeply religious cult upbringing as soon as she turned eighteen. Moving to the big city, she's been stuck working a crappy waitressing job that she hates, dealing with shitty customers, and an atmosphere that is slowly wearing her down (don't make her do the birthday song anymore please). However, when she receives an invitation to a wedding back home it makes her think that perhaps she might be able to return, to face her family, and deal with some of the ghosts of her past.

With Vesper's cousin Rose marrying Vesper's ex on the family farm things are perhaps too tempting for her to pass up, and Vesper heads home for the first time in years. Unfortunately, she soon discovers the toxic world she left behind still exists, and has been waiting for her. Whether it's her former horror films star mother, Constance, or the rest of her family, she struggles to find much in her former life to like. However, soon secrets begin to emerge, secrets that could change things for Vesper forever.

Can you ever really go home again? Black Sheep asks that question in a delightfully engrossing and subtly creepy way, and its use of slowly unfolding mystery and character study makes for a deeply engrossing read that you'll find hard to put down.

Vesper herself is a prime example of the kind of great protagonists that Harrison is great at writing. She's delightfully complex, and often something of a messy person that I think a lot of readers will find things to identify with. She's not perfect, she's got failings, and she feels brutally honest in a lot of ways, and that honesty will draw people to her story. No matter how horrific, or even bizarre, things get things feel grounded in large part due to Vesper, and readers connection to her will have you reading longer than you intended, devouring the book as quickly as you can.

Unfortunately, Black Sheep is also the kind of book where I can't say too much about it for fear of accidentally giving away too much or spoiling things. It's a book that you're going to have to pick up and try out yourself if you want to learn more. What I can say though, is that the things that have made Harrison's other novels a success can be found here, and that there are some delightfully dark and cinematic moments that leap off the page and will stick with you long after you've put the book down.

The best part of this book for me was the family dynamics, and the resulting feelings of claustrophobia and loss of control by main character Vesper. Harrison paints these characters as realistic horror villains, kept under the spell of Vesper's father and the ensuing fall out of people who will literally do anything for a cult leader.

What I found didn't work so well was the overall plot. It's a slow build, as Vesper lets the reader slowly into her world and by the time the pacing picks up I'd lost interest in where the story was going. Even the twists couldn't really save it for me.

Horror light, this read a lot like more of a thriller at times and the subject matter just wasn't really to my preference. The writing and characters were well done however, so I'd consider picking a different book up by this author in the future.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! This was one of my most anticipated 2024 releases because as some of you may know Rachel Harrison is probably my favourite author of all time. I’ve never rated a book of hers lower than five stars and this was no exception.

I honestly think Rachel Harrison can see inside my brain because her writing resonates with me so much. The issues that she writes about and the way she writes about them in an almost darkly comic way reflects how I deal with my trauma. This book in particular was about messed up family dynamics, narcissistic parents and religious trauma. I personally don’t have any religious trauma but I do have some rather messed up family dynamics and have experienced a lot of trauma at the hands of family members who I no longer talk to.

Rachel captured perfectly that feeling of wanting to know who you are after all of that trauma. How much of you is “poisoned” by it? How much have you inherited from your parents and how far can you really run from them when you have their DNA. At one point the main character, Vesper, mentions being afraid that they can’t cut their DNA out of them and essentially they will always be related to these people no matter how far they get away from them and that is something that I think about all the time myself. This book also touches on trauma bonds with Vesper still desperate to be loved and liked by her mother, still constantly looking for their approval and answers no matter how many times she says she’s done and the complex emotions surrounding her father’s abandonment of her. Her longing for him to come back and missing him while being angry that he’s not in her life. This was captured SO well. The way Vesper (absolutely incredible name by the way, might steal that for a future baby name) pushed her emotions right down as a way to numb everything, the way she just kept asking “who am I?” “Why has this happened to me?” just hit me right in the gut. This is why Rachel Harrison is my favourite author.

I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this one to go alongside my other Rachel Harrison books, her books are always so freaking beautiful to look at as well which is a bonus. I definitely recommend this but look up trigger warnings and make sure you are in the right mental space to face these topics. This was released on 23rd January 2024 so you can grab it now!

Do I recommend this? YES!

Well, I'll admit, I've never read anything like this before! It's dark, creepy, outlandish yet so so funny at times and you can't help but love and grow grow very protective of the main character, Vesper (also, what a fab name!). After years of having been estranged from her family (which we find out was because of religious reasons), Vesper has been invited back to her hometown for a family wedding. I will not reveal anything else but the plot twist was brilliant and the way things unravel fro midpoint on made for a very entertaining read in my opinion. I felt that the relationship dynamic and portrayal was particularly well written and there are points the reader might relate to. But all the characters are very realistic and the pace is pretty intense! It's interesting how easily I could picture being a reality in some remote American town and how some really wacky elements of everyday life are presented as normal.
I'm glad I went into reading this book, not knowing anything about it, there were definitely moments where I felt that it was a lot to take in but I overall enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of Rachel Harrison's books 9this was my first one).
Thank you to NetGalley and Titan books for my review copy, all opinions are my own.

Rachel Harrison is fast becoming a favourite writer of mine. Her heroines are always layered and flawed, her writing so hopeful with a good dash of gore.

I loved Vesper from the moment she burnt an idiots face with nacho cheese up until she forced her abusers into a sinkhole.

Cackle still remains my favourite book by her but this was a close second.

Black Sheep is darkly comic at points, poignant at others and in some parts utterly bizarre but I mean that as a compliment! Ultimately we are along for the ride as twenty something Vesper’s life seems to spiral more out of control than it already had been. While for some parts this is a lot like a train-wreck (again a compliment) you just can’t look away and you keep reading hoping that things will work out, or at least not get any worse (semi spoiler – they can and they will).
I personally loved this one. It was dark, a little funny, visceral and had some brilliant little twists and homages. I never like spoilers but let me say that first reveal threw me for a loop and had me chuckling and questioning just what was going on! The writing is engaging and I, personally, ended up becoming invested in Vesper pretty quickly. I will say that the pace of this one is generally a little slower to mid. It does pick up towards the end but I think the pace suits the plot and how Vesper discovers more and more about herself and her family.
My favourite part was possibly the ending, not because it was over, but because we have followed Vesper’s journey. Black Sheep will not be for everyone but I certainly loved every minute.

Ii had high hopes for this novel from one of my favourite authors, but the twist was one I didn't see coming, and didn't like at all. After the twist, the story lost my interest.

Vesper left her strict religious community as soon as she could, she just didn't believe in the same way the others did and wanted out

Stuck in a thankless job, and life not going as well as she hoped, she is tempted back to her old life by a wedding invite... but who sent it... once you leave, you aren't normally invited back

Vesper will have to see if she can find her place back 'home' or if she will realise that leaving was the right decision after all....

This was a great read, completely hooked me and was difficult to put down. Thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for the early review copy... out next week so not long to wait to read this one. Highly recommend

I absolutely loved this, the twist at the beginning hooked me in tight and didn't let me go until the very end.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 4*
Writing skill : 4*
Plot: 5*
Pace: 4*
Characters: 5*

After I read cackle last year, I saw this on netgalley, read the synopsis and said to myself this author is definitely for me. And I wasn’t wrong. I love the magical realism of her books, the fun quirky characters and the plot that is unlike anyone else’s. If you want a light horror, filled with unique characters in a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously then this is for you. Loved it, and will continue to read her backlist, Sharp Teeth, I am coming for you.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I think I liked it overall but I just wish it did more, you know? I think there were many interesting conversations to be had and they were explored a bit, but it was mostly surface level. I did LOVE the vibes of this book. If you liked The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, this might be for you!

I love this authors work so i was excited to get into this. It didn’t let me down. The atmosphere was creepy and added another layer to the unsettling plot. It also had a surprising comedy element too which I enjoyed. I’m excited to read more than them in the future.